Starowieyski, Nieznalska's installation was of such a low artistic standard that it should never have been exhibited. Many other known artists, while not approving of the sentence, agreed that if not for the scandal, Nieznalska's work would have stood little chance of making it into reputable galleries." The former president Lech Wałęsa spoke out against Nieznalska and supported a hard line, maintaining that the artist's sentence was insufficiently severe. The fine arts professors supporting the Wyspa exhibitions decided to atone for the mistake by closing the gallery. The more liberal sections of Polish society stood up in support of the sculptor's right to free artistic expression. A letter of protest signed by about 1500 artists, professionals, and other concerned citizens argued for "civic freedoms" and art as "one sphere" of "freedom, incorrectness, difference." An opinion piece by Andrzej Osęka for the liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza compared the Nieznalska case to the 2005 Jyllands-Posten controversy in Denmark, noting that whereas the Danish newspaper suffered no legal consequences on account of its publication of a cartoon deliberately offensive to the Muslim faith in spite of loud outcries from Muslim communities around the world, Nieznalska's case had resulted in a campaign of legal intimidation because of poor legislation and the judges' deference to the politicians. The Adam Mickiewicz University art historian Pawel Leszkowicz compared Nieznalska to Alicja Zebrowska and Katarzyna Kozyra, two other female artists attacked for immoral works in the 1990s. Two former Wyspa staff - curator Aneta Szylak and director Grzegorz Klaman, Nieznalska's former instructor - wrote that while "[s]ince the times of Plato, the academy [had been] a place for intellectual and artistic discourse", the principle "was broken when the gallery closed... Because she had the courage to show 'Pasja', Nieznalska had her scholarships and subsidies cut off; she has been stigmatized and censored... A spectacular political sham is [the League of Polish Families'] typical marketing strategy, and the judge acted just like they wanted him to." Nieznalska was acquitted after an arduous process and multiple appeals in June 2009. The Gazeta Wyborcza hailed the decision as "a toast to freedom." The European Humanist Federation has alleged that Polish prosecutors have been trying to revive the case in 2010. Polish reports denied that Nieznalska would be subjected to a third trial, emphasizing the acquittal as binding. References External links Official websites: http://www.nieznalska.com http://nieznalska.art.pl The blasphemy case: "The Anatomy of Blasphemy: